A waterproof electrical connector disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-153072A is a plug connector and has a wire seal positioned in a rear end portion of a housing of the plug connector. The wire seal contacts peripheries of a plurality of electrical wires inserted into the housing of the plug connector. The wire seal is integrally formed with a housing seal portion which contacts an inside of a housing of a mating connector.
In a shielded connector provided with a shell which is made of metal and which encloses the plug housing, the wire seal positioned in the rear end portion of the plug housing is pressed down by a seal cover. The seal cover is formed with a lock portion caught in the shell, and the shell encloses the seal cover and the plug housing. Furthermore, another seal, in addition to the wire seal, is positioned between the shell and the plug housing or the cap housing.
To prevent entry of water between the shell and the housing, it is necessary to position a seal extending from the wires to the position of the shell and press down the seal on the housing with the seal cover caught in the shell. Since an entire region of the seal through which the wires extend is pressed down with a portion of the seal cover, the lock portion is formed around a portion of the seal cover through which the wires extend.
The presence of the lock portion causes a distance from the position of the wires to the position of the shell to be far, and accordingly, the area of the seal extending from the position of the wires to the position of the shell is large, and the area of the seal cover for pressing down the seal is also large. Furthermore, the seal cover must have a size suitable for sufficiently pressing down and/or sufficiently locking the seal; the presence of the lock portion requires the seal cover to be thick frontward and rearward. There is a need in the art to reduce the size of an electrical connector with an electromagnetic shielding while maintaining waterproof performance.